Media Medium
20 September 2000

EMI/WARNER

EMI/Warner merger: will it crash to earth?

The stars do not bode well for the proposed deal.

EMI now awaits a decision from the European Commission after
offering concessions on its proposed merger with Warner, but will
the deal stick? The media and entertainment industries are in the
melting pot over the next two years as Jupiter and Saturn oppose
deconstructive Pluto in the signs most associated with media and
publishing, Gemini and Sagittarius. EMI's horoscope (March 29
1928) takes the full impact of these changes across its fiery,
Sagittarian Ascendant.

EMI is a pioneering Aries with its Sun next to giant Jupiter
and hi-tech Uranus. It is gifted at finding and creating new
talent, but its defining quality comes from a trine of planets in
water signs. Magical Mercury and musical Venus sit together in
Pisces, aspecting a popular Cancer Moon next to collective Pluto,
suggesting tribal and popular culture expressed through music.
Artists who connect with these water planets are EMI's big
success stories. Robbie Williams (February 13 1974), for example,
has cheeky chappie Mercury at 11 degrees of Pisces, joined to
EMI's own Mercury at the same degree. Aquarian Williams also
picks up on EMI's Mars-Neptune opposition, with its images of
groups and bands, drugs, sex and rock n' roll.

Neptune may be fine for music and film but in the business
world, it often sows the seeds of confusion, and with EMI's
Ascendant opposing this illusory planet now, the current merger
is beginning to resemble a beached whale. The advantages of the
deal have never been obvious to most EMI shareholders, and the
horoscope for its announcement (10am00 GMT, January 24 2000,
London) has always seemed dodgy. The astrology is just as
confused as the merger, but even if the EC lets it through, it
still looks as if the matter won't be settled until late June and
July next year. Before then, moves from EMI shareholders could
sink the whole deal.